This is the story of my life in Buffalo, N.Y. where I write and draw. I am finishing up the biography of the great American pianist Leonard Pennario, a massive project I began 11 years ago when I had the unbelievable good fortune to get to know him. I also love to sketch.
The blog on this page features my adventures in art and other things. The Music Critic blog -- click the link on the right and down a bit -- has my thoughts on music. Thank you for visiting!

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Trailer trash

The other night when my mom and I saw "Easy Virtue" they showed us a trailer for "Away We Go." Wow, that is a terrible title, "Away We Go." Couldn't they have thought up anything more vivid or descriptive?

I mean, "Leonard Pennario, America's Greatest Pianist." That is a title for you. It tells you everything you need to know. It is descriptive and sexy!

Anyway. From the trailer "Away We Go" looked really annoying, about a couple who are expecting a baby and they apparently move all over the place, trying to figure out what to do with their lives and where to settle down. That is what it seemed like from the trailer anyhow. I am not going to be seeing the movie!

Plus there are unsavory sex scenes which naturally they splash up there on the big screen when here I am at the movies with my mother.

Of course we've got that big "R" rating!

Plus you have to look at that ugly actor. Whatever happened to the image of the leading man? At least when I show you pictures of Pennario ...

... he is something good to look at. I would write "eye candy" only my mother and I agreed that we do not like that expression.

Anyway. I am watching the trailer to "Away We Go" thinking, these dopey kids, you know? Because I thought they were maybe 20. I remember being 20 and I ran around then acting like an idiot, that is for sure.

Here is an annoying picture of this couple from "Away We Go" smug in their dumbness.

Adolescence is extended now into your 30s and I do not see this changing. It is because kids cannot ride their bikes around the block by themselves.

Dogs cannot roam!

Lastnight I was at my mom's house helping babysit our little Bobbie and Georgie. Bobbie is what my mother calls Barbara because my mom's mother was named Barbara and they called her Bobbie. And we were joined in the back yard by Annie. Annie is the old yellow Lab from next door. She always walks around like a cow grazing, her muzzle to the ground, sniffing, sniffing.

Annie is free the way dogs used to be.

She is old and docile but when we were kids a lot of dogs were not. And as Howard pointed out, we learned how to deal with them. When we walked to school -- we were allowed to walk to school way back when -- we had to learn how to deal with Big White Dog ...

There was also Yar the beagle. And J.B. the Scottie dog that belonged to the Robshaws two doors down. Mrs. Robshaw would come to the door and call in the dog when she called in the kids. "Karen Ann Robshaw!!" she would yell. And the little girl would come running from down the block. "J.B!" And the dog would come running on its little legs down the sidewalk.

We also had Baron, the regal and skittish German shepherd next door, and the really old black Lab from down the street, so old she walked sideways. What was that dog's name? Stacy. She was the Teapasses' dog and she would come reeling into your yard.

Now all the dogs are on leashes and all the children are wimps. And we have couples like the couple in "Away We Go," in their 30s and stupid and proud of it.

3 comments:

Prof Schuft
said...

About "Away We Go": My wife believes that there should be a universal contraceptive in the water supply and that no one should be allowed to reproduce without passing stringent "suitability to be parents" testing. Once a license is granted, one would be given a fertility antidote. But that's not a good Catholic attitude, is it? Me? I agree with her, except that there wouldn't be an antidote.

BTW, please keep us posted about your appearance on the Piano Puzzler from Performance Today radio show. Wondering if it will be available on the Internet. It would be a drag to have to drive all the way to Buffalo!

wow I had forgotten about ChampHe was an old mixed breed lived about a block and a half from my parents house when I was a kidHe used to strool over to get a treat from my MomI can't remember him ever barkingSad thing is the way he roamed the street he'd last about a half an hour today